Your recent letter was full of victim blaming, oopsies & oh, we tried!
It’s not an effective response from effective leaders and no. This isn’t going to settle or calm down.
First, the complaint never should have gone to the ethics committee as honest discussions about books coming from authors on social media is specifically EXCLUDED from the code of ethics!
Second, you are not practicing fair standards across the board when you change policy in what looks like an attempt to cover someone’s ass.
It appears the timeline was:
8.27.2019
Suzan Tisdale files an ethics complaint against Courtney Milan. It should be noted that Tisdale clearly stated she was opening her own publishing company in just over a month, so should no longer be considered solely an author or general member, but an associate member.
8.31.2019
Alison Kelly recuses herself from the issue.
Former president Helenkay Dimon requests Courtney Milan’s resignation from ethics committee.
9.11.2019
Kathryn Davis files ethics complaint against Courtney Milan. Again, note that Milan called out racism in one of Davis’s books-open criticism is permitted by the code of the ethics. There were no attacks on Davis herself.
10.1.19
a call for volunteers for the ethics committee went out, as per usual, with sign-ups remaining open until 10.11
10.5.19
RWA policy is amended, giving then president-elect the authority, with the ED, to appoint a new EC chair-this is AFTER the call for new committee members went out.
P&P is also changed, making the call/formation of a new ethics committee to haapen in the 4th quarter, rather than the 1st -but this isn’t on the calendar year. The fourth quarter would have been July-September 2020. Again, a call for new committee members has already gone out.
So if calls when out for new volunteers from 10.1 to 10.11, how was a new ethics committee selected, trained, brought up to date and given such a touchy topic that was then resolved by them within a couple of weeks?
Why was the president elect needed to be a liaison? It’s never been needed before and why was this done after a call for new volunteers went out? Who decided this was okay or even necessary?
Where & how was this new committee formed? Selected? Prepared?
And why did they ignore the facts that social media posts discussing books is specifically excluded in the code of ethics, as well as the fact that a publisher voiced the first complaint?
This statement isn’t good enough.
Damon Suede & Carol Ritter have lost our faith, and Damon at the very least, needs to resign.
Shiloh Walker